Halo: Ancient Elements
by Asgardian Dovahkiin
Summary: A deep ancient enemy is discovered below our very feet and a star-lord arrives! Can Avatar Korra stop this Ancient Evil and befriend the Star-Lord? STORY TITLE HAS BEEN CHANGED. Cover by bionicman31 from deviantArt.
1. Discovery of The Past

Halo: Ancient Elements

* * *

Many years ago…long before the first human stood on this world, the ancients ruled the cosmos. They created great monuments of their power and will, made worlds habitable for their divine people. Then the great Flood came upon them and all life.

Seeing themselves as protectors of all, the Ancients created the Rings. According to the legend, before they fired the Rings, a goddess by the name of The Librarian saved many races from extinction. But a handful of humans were brought to a special world…a Shield World.

She would place them there and with the aid of her mighty Sentinels, the humans would be placed into a long sleep. The Rings fired…and all life that was not saved ended…as planned.

* * *

"You got a lighter?" A man asked.

"Who needs a lighter when you can firebend?" The other man responded as he lighted a small fire from his thumb. The dark tunnel was then lighted by the small fire.

"Good, now we can see where we are going. " The other explorer said. They continued down the dark tunnel until they came to sudden halt. "What's that?" He asked.

"Looks like a door…made out of metal." The firebending explorer responded. "You can metalbend, open it."

His friend tried to bend it open, but nothing happened.

"Must be platinum or cast iron." He said as he tapped the metallic door. "Doesn't feel like any metal I know of."

Then as he passed his hand down the gate a bright blue light appeared in front of them. They were startled by the light and the thing that came out from it. "What is that?!" The firebending explorer asked.

"I don't know but it looks like typewriter." The earthbending explorer responded as he touched the light construct. "It feels physical." But as soon as he touched it, the gate began to move.

"Gah! Why did you do!?" The firebending explorer yelled.

"I didn't do anything, it's just moving by itself!" The earthbender responded, equally surprised and scared by the sudden movement of the rather alien gate. One it opened, a strange metal corridor was seen inside. With a stair case going down…deeper into the earth and ground.

"What do we do?" The earthbender asked.

"I have never seen anything like this in my life…" The firebender responded as he went down the stairs. "It's dark…" He said as he kept going down.

"Comeback!" The earhtbender yelled at his companion.

"Wait." The firebender said as he found another gate, but this time there was some kind of button in the middle of it. "This could be the greatest find in the history of humanity."

He pressed the button and the gates opened…

* * *

Red lights flashed. They flashed across the interior of a derelict human vessel floating in space. Inside the cryo chamber, a blue ball of light floated above a holotank. The ball of light then took the form of a woman, she looked afraid at what she could see from the ship's still working outer cameras.

The remains of the ship known as Forward Unto Dawn was closing in to a nearby planet. Not only was it heading rapidly, but several Covenant cruisers were floating above the planet as well. She began to look for the activation key. She found it and activated it!

"Wake up, Chief. Wake up…" She said in a low tone as the only working cryo tube hushed open.


	2. Hard Landing

_**UNSC Forward Unto Dawn**_

* * *

The tall green-armored man jolted up inside his cryo pod, his vision began to clear. The armored man began to look for a way to open the pod's hatch.

"Where are we?" He asked.

"Easy Chief, you've been out for a while." The little computer woman responded. "We're still in the Dawn floating in space."

"Why did you wake me?" He asked again as he looked around his tube.

"Hold on, bringing your suit's systems online." She said, the armored man began to feel the armor activating. "I updated your suit's firmware while you were asleep."

"You've been busy." He said.

"I'm going to activate the ship's artificial gravity generator…or what's left of it." She said, and then a voice was heard around the room. Then everything that was floating around suddenly fell on the metallic floor.

"The manual release is right above you." She told him. The armored man looked above his head and found a switch, he pulled it. The hatch then opened, allowing the armored super-soldier to come out from his hushed casket. He walked towards the light woman; she smiled as he approached her.

"Seems like old times huh?" She asked him.

"Ready to get back to work?" He asked back. "I thought you were never going to ask." She said as she crossed her artificial arms.

He then took out the chip from the holo tank and put it inside his helmet, connecting himself with the AI. He felt that nostalgic feeling of coolness drifting inside his head.

The Chief then took out a weapon from a nearby weapon holder, the very same rifle he had placed there years ago. The MA5C Assault Rifle, a little rusty and outdated with the newer model assault rifles inside the Dawn, but it still worked.

"There are hostile life forms inside the ship, Chief." The AI informed.

"Where?" Chief asked.

"The observatory above." She answered. He then found the ships' hologram system. It showed how clearly the Forward Unto Dawn was damaged after the Battle of the Ark where they narrowly escaped from. Only the aft section of the ship remained, the other side was completely sliced off.

The Chief then found an elevator; he forcedly opened the elevator's doors. "Elevators gone." Chief said once he saw that the elevator had crashed down in the bottom floor. "There's no other way to go up except for the stairs." She responded.

"No time for stairs Cortana." Chief said as he looked up inside the elevator shaft.

"You are not thinking of…" Cortana said. Then The Chief jumped into the shaft and held himself with on the walls and wires. "…nevermind."

He climbed the shaft easily, his super-human strength and agility, even inside his armor, made it a cake walk or climb. Once he reached the floor of the observatory he was ambushed by someone inside Active Camouflage.

"Grrr…!" Chief grunted as he wrestled the energy sword wielder, then it came out of camo. It was an Elite or Sangheilli warrior. Chief had to clear himself off the alien, so he quickly grabbed hold of its head and threw it inside the elevator shaft. The alien went on falling into the bottom floor. "I thought we had a truce with the Covenant."

"A lot can happen in four years, Chief." Cortana said. "Observatory's close."

He then made his way to the observatory, which was also used as the control of the aft section of the ship. The Chief then saw that the observatory had been completely been overrun with Covenant foot soldiers. He sneaked behind the one that looked to be the leader, a Covenant Elite Officer.

Once he got close enough, the Chief took out his combat knife and silently assassinated the Elite officer. He then stood up and from the pedestal and control area could see that the observatory's gigantic windows were closed. He has to activate them in order to know where they are, but first he needs to take out the Covenant in the area.

He aimed his powerful Assault Rifle at a Grunt soldier and fired. The bullets ripped through the small alien and alerted the others. "YAAGH! DEMON!" One of them screamed in their alien tongue but the word 'demon' was easy to notice.

Chief then fired at them too, the Elite Minors in the area fired their Plasma Rifles and Storm Rifles. The plasma flew through the air, hitting the metal walls behind the Master Chief. Noticing the immediate danger of the Elites, the Chief decided to take them first and take care of the Grunts later. He took out his Magnum and fired the powerful round at the Elite. The round took out the alien's personal energy shields leaving it unprotected. The Chief unloaded his Assault Rifle's clip on the alien, bringing it down fast.

Master Chief was able to clean house with the rest of the scared Grunts. Apparently he had acted so quickly that he hadn't given the Elites a chance to call for help. Now that the area was safe he headed back to the pedestal to activate the windows. "That one." Cortana said as she placed a waypoint on the correct switch. The Chief turned it, bringing the area online.

The Chief then walked towards the window to see what they had stumbled on to. "Chief…does this remind you of something?" Cortana asked.

"A human world…and the Covenant have found it." Master Chief said as he looked at the blue planet below them being swarmed by Covenant cruisers and corvettes.

* * *

_**Planetside**_

Everyone inside the city began to freak out and the authorities could do little to contain the panicking citizens. "IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!" Many citizens screamed as they ran away.

The skies darkened as a gigantic, enormous alien vessel flew above the city. The dark and deep purple of the ship only more intimidated the locals. "Calm down people, calm down!" A metalbending officer yelled to keep the order.

"Officer, is that what I think it is!?" The Avatar asked the metalbending cop as she came running from the crowd.

"That's the strange alien ship, Avatar. HQ says that this one is not the only one, that there are multiple ships across the planet!" The cop answered.

Then a loud sound was heard coming from the enormous ship which stopped the people from moving, freezing them on the spot. A shiny purple light could be seen coming from it. "I don't like the sound of that." The Avatar said as she took a couple of steps back.

Then the purple light began to completely destroy the area it was hitting. The sound of explosions and destruction could be heard beyond the streets of the city but it made the crowd go wilder. "I'm out of here!" The cop said as he left running leaving the Avatar alone. She looked at the massive ship on the skies.

"Now what do I do!?" She yelled as the screams of the crowd muffled her voice.

* * *

_**UNSC Forward Unto Dawn**_

"We are being pulled down!" Cortana yelled as the Chief held onto a nearby pole. "The planet's gravity is pulling us and the Covenant ships around us into it!?|"

"Locate the nearest escape pods!" Chief yelled.

"Done!" Cortana responded as a waypoint appeared in the Chief's Heads-Up-Display. He tried to make his way out of the crumbling observatory using his suit's magnetic boots. "This is completely wrong! We are not even close to the planet's gravitational pull!"

Chief kept making his way to the escape pods when the ship's halls began to be engulfed in flames! "The gravity is pulling the Dawn apart!" Cortana yelled. "Chief, the escape pods now!"

The Master Chief then sprinted towards the escape pods as he heard the area around him breaking apart, passing through several Grunts and Elites who were also trying to escape the exploding ship. The super-soldier ran as lightning towards the escape pods when he found himself entering a corridor which was being ripped apart by the gravitational pull of the planet below.

The Chief couldn't stop in time and was also pull out of the ship along with several Covenant soldiers. He began to free-fall into the planet, outside the atmosphere itself. "Activate the suit's gel layers for impact." The Chief ordered Cortana.

"I don't think they're going to hold!" Cortana yelled.

"They did once, they will do again." Chief responded as he grabbed a nearby Covenant ship metal plate and used it as a heat shield as he began to rip through the atmosphere. He saw how several Covenant corvettes crashed into the planet along with the Dawn.

"Prepare for impact!" Cortana yelled as they approached the ground. The Chief then felt hi armor hardening around the joints and helmet. He closed his eyes and then…

* * *

_**Republic City**_

"LOOK!" One of the citizens yelled as they saw several ships crash through the skies, hitting the gigantic alien vessel that floated above the south side of the city. The people tried to get out of the way as the alien cruiser crash down into the city.

Then a different kind of ship crash down as well, it crashed into the park. The Avatar, along with other members of police prevented several buildings from falling on top of the fleeing people flooding the streets. "Evacuate the city now!" An officer screamed from inside a police truck. "The United Forces have already ordered the complete evacuation of all major cities!"

The police officers then began to run along with the people to clear the area, while the Avatar stayed behind. Several pods began to fly away from the bigger ships that were entering atmosphere. The pods crashed into the park, where the different craft had landed on.

The Avatar narrowed her eyes on that location, wanting some answers for this chaos. She then made her way to the park.

The Chief began to re-gain consciousness and stood up. "Chief, incoming pods!" Cortana yelled. Four Elite attack pods landed around the Master Chief. The pods blasted open revealing the Elites. These Elites however sported golden armor and carried energy swords.

"Zealots." Chief said calmly as he reloaded his Assault Rifle. He examined the battleground; several spots were to avoid their swords like the remains of the Dawn and pieces of Covenant Corvettes. "GRAAAGH!" One of the Elite Zealots screamed as it charged at the Chief.

The Master Chief avoided the sword slash swiftly, and threw a plasma grenade at the golden elite, making it explode in a cloud of blue mist. The other Zealots charged towards the super-soldier, he began to shoot at them with his weapon but their shields were too strong, being able to resist the multiple shots from the Assault Rifle. Chief knew he wasn't a match physically against three Zealots alone. He thought quickly and threw a frag grenade into his feet as the Zealots ran towards him. As they got closer fast he jumped above them, avoiding their slashes as the grenade exploded. The explosion and shrapnel from the grenade was able to partially destroy their energy shields.

The distraction allowed the Chief to grab the dead Zealot's energy sword and turn it on. The Zealots then grunted in anger on seeing the Demon using such holy weapon. They once again charged at the super-soldier.

This time the Chief was ready, and defended himself with his sword. Slicing one of the Zealot's arms off and leaving it out of the battle. The Master Chief then struck the other Zealot in the head, disorientating it for a moment, allowing the Chief to decapitate the alien.

A single Zealot was left, it looked angry. Moving its mandibles around showing its unpleased emotions. "Grrr…" It gargled.

"I think you made it angry." Cortana said.

"You don't say." Chief responded as he stood in a defensive stance in case the Elite attacked head on, which they mostly do.

Then, noticing in his motion tracker, the Chief saw a grey dot coming closer to them. "What the" Chief said with surprise. A young human girl came up towards the wreckage.

She looked to be stunned at what she was seeing: A towering green-armored man and a golden armored monster.

"Get down!" Chief yelled as he noticed the Zealot charge towards the girl. The Chief then jumped towards the alien, tackling it to the ground. But the Zealot proved to be stronger, lifting the Chief with ease and throwing him to the ground. "Agh!"

"Ahhh…." The girl said as the golden monster stood in front of her with its glowing sword. She then snapped out of her surprise and quickly stomped the ground, earthbending the earth below the alien and making a sinkhole below it. The Zealot fell down the dark hole; the girl then closed the ground.

She then sighed, but then another towering figure appeared in front of her.

"The perimeter is not safe, get me to the closest UNSC facility in the area now!" The Chief ordered.

"The what?" She asked confusedly.


	3. The Star-Lord

_**Republic City**_

* * *

"Tell me where the nearest UNSC NAVCOM building is!" The Chief demanded as he reloaded his Assault Rifle. Avatar Korra stood frozen at the presence of the giant in front of her, never had she seen such being before only in stories.

"The…what?" She asked the tall green armored man. His golden faceplate shined as he looked at her, she couldn't see his face making him even more terrifying to the sight.

"Chief, I think she doesn't know what the UNSC is." Cortana said inside the Master Chief's head. He listened to her companion's words and took notice. The Chief then decided that he should better continue on looking for a way to prevent the Covenant from hailing nearby fleets that there was a human planet nearby.

"Wait!" Korra yelled as the Master Chief was starting to leave the crash site of the Dawn. He turned.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Are you…you the Star-Lord?" She asked him. Inside his helmet, the Master Chief raised an eyebrow as Cortana giggled at the name.

"Tell her yes." Cortana said as she finished giggling. The Chief complied since he might as well not reveal his identity and the UNSC's just yet.

"Yes." The Chief responded the Avatar's question as he turned around again and went on walking down the grass hill. Korra didn't know what to say but there was someone who could help her with this.

The Chief, now alone, could better analyze the situation at hand. "Where are we exactly?" He asked.

"Checking coordinate impact data…_we've asked you to give up your family, your childhood, your future…_" Cortana began saying a more digitalized voice. The Master Chief hearing this quickly took the chip off his helmet to see what was wrong with his companion.

"Cortana?" The Chief asked. The AI's hologram then appeared on top of the chip.

"I'm sorry…it's the crash, I'm fine." Cortana responded.

"Something was wrong even before we left the Dawn." Chief said.

"Chief, really…I'm fine." Cortana insisted with a digitalized voice again, not sounding as smooth as before.

"Cortana." Master Chief said with a low, commanding voice telling her to say the truth.

"I was put into service eight years ago." Cortana said.

"Eight years…" Chief repeated now looking at how much time has passed.

"AIs deteriorate after seven, Chief." Cortana revealed.

"Halsey." Chief said.

"Chief " Cortana responded.

"We need to find Halsey." Master Chief said.

"Chief please!" Cortana said as her voice cracked a little.

"She made you…she can fix you." Chief explained.

"I won't recover from rampancy Chief." Cortana said.

"If we can just get back to Earth and find Halsey, she can fix this." Chief promised.

"Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep." Cortana responded with a low voice. Then the sound of a Phantom dropship was heard as it flew passed them and into the city. "We need to move!"

Cortana's hologram disappeared, and then Chief placed the chip back into his helmet. He looked towards the city and then to his rifle. Only three magazines left…he would have find ammo as he went on. Hopefully these people have something that could pass off as a weapon…hopefully.

* * *

_**Air Temple Island**_

Korra quickly made her way to Air Temple Island; she had seen something that she had only read in storybooks as a kid. As the Avatar she has to protect the world and right now the world was in a state of complete chaos as the Beasts have showed up.

Once Korra arrived on the port of the island she saw several singular pods around the whole area, even some that gone through the roof of the temple.

"Master Tenzin!" Korra yelled as she ran down the halls of the Air Temple. As she ran by she saw the bodies of multiple dismembered Air Acolytes throughout the wooden floors. Korra almost puked once the stench of burnt flesh entered her nose.

She kept going until she arrived into the hallway that leads to Tenzin's room. As she ran towards Tenzin's quarters, one of those beasts went flying through the door of the room and into the hallway. It slammed into the hard wooden wall as it fell down in the ground dead.

"Gah!" Korra yelled. She looked for who had blasted the monster away, it had been Tenzin. "Tenzin!" Korra yelled as she went to see how her master was doing.

"Korra!" Tenzin said but then he grunted as he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. He then fell on his right knee, it was an open wound caused by the beast.

"Tenzin what happened!?" Korra asked her master.

"They…those monsters crashed through the roof…dozens of them. They began murdering the Acolytes…the White Lotus guards did all they could but…I told Pemma to take the kids to the South Pole on Oogi…I..." Tenzin tried to say but the wound was too deep.

"Hold on." Korra said as she ran towards the bathroom and opened the sink. She then filled a cup with water and ran back to Tenzin. "I'm going to try to heal your wound."

She bended the water off the cup and then used her healing abilities to heal Tenzin's opened wound. He gasped as the water touched his injury but then relaxed. "They carried swords…swords of light that could cut anything. Could absorb fire, evaporate water and slice earth." Tenzin said as he remembered the beasts. "But could not overcome air."

"Where are the other monsters?" Korra asked him.

"I used Airbending to propel them off the island and into the bay." Tenzin answered. "It goes against all codes of the Air Nomads but…but I fear that these are living things but ruthless monsters with no sense of life and dignity."

"Tenzin today…today I saw the Star-Lord." Korra bluntly revealed to him.

"The Star-Lord?" Tenzin asked. "But that's just a story, how could you…?"

"He fell from the sky like the Beasts but was fighting them. He was enormous, had green armor on and his face mask was golden as the purest gold." Korra described the Star-Lord. "And he carried this long thing that shot stuff and he defeated three golden beasts alone."

"Hmm…" Tenzin began thinking. "Let's go to the library, it's time for me to tell you a story."

* * *

_**The Library, Air Temple Island**_

They walked along the small library that contained some books, manuscripts and weird stuff that Aang had been collecting across the years. "This is the last report sent by two archeologists twenty years ago. In their last report they said that they had discovered something beyond anything we have ever seen. That beneath the soil below our feet lied another world, much like ours here on top but untouched by man."

"Great, but what does this have to do with anything?" Korra asked.

"In the story of the Ancients and the Rings, it said that the Ancients built entire worlds whose center housed another land. Made to be safe haven for any one that was beyond the reach of the Haven. The Star-Lords are said to be the inheritors of the Ancients' wishes and responsibility, this had been the story until today." Tenzin said.

"Are you saying that there's actually untouched land underground?!" Korra asked surprise.

"I don't know Korra, but…if it's true then that would explain why the Beasts have come here…they seek to destroy the Ancients' wishes and the Star-Lords have sent their champion to stop them." Tenzin responded. "And to reclaim what was once lost."

"Let me guess…as the Avatar I must help the Star-Lord defeat the evil beasts and secure the center of the world…correct?" Korra asked in voice that imitated Tenzin's.

"Indeed you will." Tenzin said. "Head to the city and locate the Star-Lord, I'll head to the Police Station and look for Chief Beifong and help in saving the city. You Korra, must save the world."

"Great." Korra responded.

* * *

_**Republic City**_

The Master Chief moved through corner to corner, making sure he wouldn't be ambushed by any Jackal sniper. The streets had been evacuated; it was all desolated; only trash was left on the ground as probably the citizens panicked upon seeing the Covenant ships in the sky.

"Chief, I'm getting this weird signal coming from nowhere…it sounds like it was trying to say something, it was human, but it was muffled." Cortana informed the Chief as he assassinated a sleeping Grunt.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I don't know but…hold on…I found where the signal is coming from." Cortana said.

"Where?" Chief asked again.

"Wait... the signal has the codes from the UNSC Infinity, a vessel that was commissioned after the war." Cortana said. "But something's not right…the planet is triangulating the signal to the…the center of the planet?"

"How?" Chief asked as he battled an Elite Officer.

"This world…its Forerunner." Cortana revealed. "It's a Shield World."

"That can't be right." Chief said as he shot the Elite in the head with his magnum pistol. The Elite fell on the ground dead; he had annihilated an entire squadron of Elites and Grunts.

"I have tapped into the Covenant's battlenet and I have found out that the Covenant ships that were falling with us never actually crashed but entered the planet." Cortana informed. "If they could've passed through the crust then it's not far off that the Infinity might've also entered it once it found our distress beacon."

"Any entrance into the planet on foot?" Chief asked.

"Yes, 1000 miles do north; I'm marking a waypoint to it." Cortana answered as she placed a waypoint in Chief's HUD. "It will take you at top speed an hour to get there."

"Understood." Chief said, he prepared to sprint when…"Hey!"…He heard a voice.

"It's her again isn't it?" Cortana asked the Chief. He stood up straight as he saw the human girl running down the derelict streets.

"Stop and get down on the ground!" Chief yelled to her. She, not knowing what to do, did what he said and jumped onto the ground. Master Chief saw that in the roofs in the end of the city stood a Jackal sniper. The Chief took out his pistol and quickly aimed at the Jackal and fired. BANG! The sound of the gun was heard, but the Jackal had already fallen down the rooftop.

Korra looked up again to see the Star-Lord looking at her as he placed his loud device back on his right tight. "Listen, if you keep following me you're going to get into trouble." Master Chief said.

Korra stood quickly and looked up to the Star-Lord. "My name is Korra and I am the Avatar of this world…Mr. Star-Lord sir." She said with a nervous voice.

"Avatar?" Chief asked.

"Yes, umm…I can bend the four elements and I kind of represent everyone in this world." Korra said as she nervously laughed and scratched the back of her head.

"You are far too inexperienced to represent anyone." Chief frankly said as he began to walk away.

"Wait…I have to go with you." Korra said.

"Negative, you would just get in the way." Chief said without looking back.

"Like it or not, I am the Avatar and it's my job to protect this world so you might as well deal with it." Korra responded as she ran to him.

The Master Chief looked at the young girl in front of him, she looked more nervous than mad but he could see the drive in her eyes. "Okay." He said as he kept walking.

Korra smiled, the thought of helping a fabled Star-Lord was incredible. "By any case…do you a means of fast travel?" He asked.

"Actually, I might have some friends to help us out." Korra said as she rubbed her chin in the thought.


	4. Into The Howling Dark

_**Over The Mountains**_

* * *

"When you said a means of transportation I thought that you meant something faster than this…" Chief said as The Avatar, known as Korra and her friends and he rode inside a 'borrowed' Police Airship.

"Chief…at this rate we would be arriving at the waypoint by midnight. I don't think that the Infinity would like it to stay inside this planet for too long." Cortana said.

"…I need to get the objective or this world is at risk." The Master Chief added.

"Eh…don't worry, uhh…this is the fastest that the airship can go." Korra said as she pointed to the steam engine of the ship.

"I can't believe it! An actual Star-Lord is standing right in front of me! Awesome!" Bolin said with complete happiness and amazement as he looked at the SPARTAN.

"Cool it Bolin, I don't think that the space man likes to be watch every second." Mako, Bolin's older brother, said as he held his younger brother from touching the Chief's armor.

"The way your suit is made is years beyond what Future Industries can do." Asami, Mako's girlfriend said as she looked at the Chief. "Is it some kind of metal?"

"Classified." The Chief replied. "There's something going on below this world and if I don't get there the Covenant might doom this planet."

"You mean the Beasts? They have a name?" Korra asked.

"They are called the Covenant, a once powerful empire alliance of various…aliens." The Master Chief explained. "I thought that we had them beaten but it seems a faction of them survived."

"Why would they challenge the Star-Lords in the first place?" Bolin asked.

"First contact happened almost twenty-seven years ago, when they attacked one of our worlds, Harvest." The Chief revealed. "We got slaughtered, the planet's skies burned in fire."

"But how? Star-Lords are mighty, spirit-like." Asami said.

"Chief, something is following us." Cortana told the Chief. The Master Chief stood up and walked towards a nearby window.

"What is it?" Korra asked the armored super-soldier.

"Banshees." The Chief answered.

"What?" Korra asked again, then suddenly the sounds of screaming women loudly came from the outside as two purple blurs passed them. "What was that?!"

"Covenant air vehicles." The Chief responded as he took out his Assault Rifle. "Prepare for impact."

The air ship was then shot by the incoming Covenant Banshees, hot plasma burned through the steel frame making the motors explode. The air ship was now in descending course to the mountains below. Everyone inside the ship screamed except for the Master Chief. The Chief looked at his back, and nodded.

"Everyone around me!" He ordered, the teenagers quickly latched on him. Then the thrusters on his back activated, propelling him and his companions into the steel roof of the air ship. The Chief extended his arms so that the falling steel wouldn't crush the teenagers, his energy shields flickered as the debris fell on him.

He and the others flew right out of the air ship, making it out right before it crashed into the mountains. But the thruster pack on the Chief's back was not made to fly and they suddenly began to fall. Luckily, the landed on a snowy land-slide free of trees or rocks and began to roll down to safety as the air ship exploded far away from them.

"Ugh…let's not do that again…ever." Bolin said as he sat and rubbed his head.

"Everyone okay?" The Chief asked as his energy shields re-charged.

"Yeah…" Mako said as he took his head out of the snow.

"Me too." Asami added.

"That was…cool." Korra said as she stood up and the snow on her fell onto the ground.

"Chief we are about 20 miles from the objective and the Banshees have retreated back to the city." Cortana informed the SPARTAN. The Master Chief still wasn't sure if the humans on this world could defend themselves against the might of the Covenant but once the Infinity is brought up, they would help.

"We are twenty-eight miles away from our destination; we must make haste now since the Covenant air forces think we are dead." The Master Chief said as he placed his Assault Rifle on his back and started to walk towards his waypoint mark.

"Hold on…we almost died back there, we have to rest." Mako said.

"We don't have time to rest, the Covenant are already ahead of us." The Chief responded as he kept walking.

"Chief, we are not super like you, we're tired." Asami said, supporting her boyfriend's claims. The Chief stopped and turned around.

"Ten minutes." He clearly said as he sat on a nearby rock and began to count his ammunition rounds.

The teenagers then rested, looking at their surviving inventory for food and water. The Chief looked at his rifle, he inspected it deeply.

"The Covenant Battlenet is mess down inside the planet, Chief. They seem to have found something that is not good…at all." Cortana reported to the Chief.

"The Flood?" The Chief asked.

"Not from what sounds like…something different. Aside from that, the signal coming from the Infinity is increasing alarmingly." Cortana continued. "We better hurry."

The Master Chief looked at his gun once more…"When we get back to Earth…" He said.

"…Let's worry about the Covenant first Chief." Cortana interrupted.

Some feet away, Avatar Korra and her companions rested after such troublesome fall. "Hey Korra, I think that the Star-Lord over there is kind of nuts." Bolin murmured.

"I think that he's talking with a spirit." Korra responded.

"What makes you say that?" Asami asked.

"Well, Tenzin told me that the Ancients and the Star-Lords are capable of conversing with Spirits and that the Spirits personally come to them." Korra answered.

"Whoever he's talking to must be pretty special." Mako said.

"Why?" Korra asked.

"He's talking in a very soft tone, softer than the way he speaks to us." Mako responded. Then suddenly, the Master Chief stood up from his rocky seat.

"Rest's over, let's move." The Chief said as he began to walk towards his objective again. The teens groaned at the thought of walking miles, but followed the SPARTAN on.

* * *

**UNSC Infinity, orbiting above the planet**

"The signal is coming from where?" Captain Andrew Del Rio asked his commander and naval officers.

"It's coming from within the planet sir." Commander Thomas Lasky answered. The other naval officers in the bridge began to re-check the coordinate data.

"It must be some kind of error." Captain Del Rio said. "This world is currently off limits by the UNSC FLEETCOM, according to the records, this is an Insurrectionist planet."

"Looks pretty backwards to me sir, they barely have plains." Commander Lasky said. "But the scanners from the Infinity don't lie; the signal is coming from within the planet."

Then the shipboard AI appeared on the holographic panel table that detailed the planet that the UNSC Infinity orbited. "Should I order Commander Palmer to send SPARTAN Fire teams; Castle and Shadow for ground deployments?" Roland, the ship AI asked.

"No, not yet." Captain Del Rio responded. "Not until we know what that damned signal is saying."

The Captain and the Commander then looked at the planet below from the bridge. It looked a lot like the Earth; it could as well be its twin world.

* * *

**Tunnel to Interior of Planet**

"This is it." The Chief said as he looked at unearthed hole in the ground, big enough to allow him entrance.

"That's just a hole in the ground." Bolin said.

The Master Chief, ignoring what he said, descends down the hole. They followed nevertheless. Once they got down deeper into the tunnel, the Master Chief turned on the built-in flashlight inside his Assault Rifle which surprised the teens following him.

"That's definitely not a natural cave formation." Cortana said as they were stopped by a quite big metallic Forerunner gate. It was sealed shut.

"Howa re we going to get through?" Korra asked the Chief. The Master Chief began to move his hand over the gate, and then he stopped it on a certain spot. It began to glow.

The gate began to move, startling the young benders. The gates opened revealing a corridor that went deeper until a small elevator could be seen at the end.

The Master Chief looked at his surroundings, and once he knew it was safe he proceeded forward. "Wow…" Asami said as she looked at the fantastic metal works on the walls, floors and ceilings. Even the stairs going down looked amazing, this must be the work of the Ancients.

"Portal gate." Cortana told the Chief.

"I'm going to tell you that what comes next could be extremely dangerous, are you ready?" The Master Chief asked the group.

"We're ready." The all said in unison. The Chief nodded.

"Cortana, open the gate to send us directly to the core." The Master Chief ordered. Then in front of him, a swirling purplish-black portal opened. He walked towards it…he turned to face them again. "I'll go first."

He walked inside and…he was gone. "Do we go?" Korra asked her friends.

"Uh…looks like fun." Bolin responded.

"I know I'm going to regret this." Mako added.

"We have to do this you guys, our people are up there fighting against the Beast or Covenant or whatever they're called. We have to help the Star-Lord!" Asami said. Agreeing to her, they all walked towards the portal and jumped in.

* * *

**The Core of the Planet**

Once they arrived to the other side, the first feeling they got was nausea.

"I think…I think I'm going to throw up." Mako said as he tried to prevent a mess.

"My lunch is in my throat." Bolin added.

"Pull…yourselves up." Korra said as they recovered from such trip. "Are we in the…"

"This is the core." The Chief said as he stood in front of them. The hollow interior of the planet surprised all of them, only a circular sphere floated in the middle. From the sides, several spires fed the center with energy.

"Chief that's where the signal's coming from, from that satellite." Cortana informed. The Infinity isn't here…but how did it know its signal code? "But that doesn't leave out the possibility that the Infinity is orbiting the planet."

"What do you mean?" The Chief asked.

"Place me in the terminal." Cortana said. The Chief then took out the chip from his helmet and inserted it inside the center terminal. The appearance of Cortana's hologram took Korra and her friends for surprise, almost as surprise as finding out that their world is hollow.

"That…that's the Spirit." Asami said.

"Yeah…" Korra responded.

"The satellite used the signal of the Infinity right? It's probably on orbit right now, we have to warn them about what's going on since most of the Covenant capital ships are inside the planet." Cortana said.

"What do you plan?" Chief asked.

"We can use the satellite to send them another signal to warn them." Cortana responded.

* * *

**UNSC Infinity, orbiting above the planet**

"Sir, additional scans confirm Covenant Storm presence on the planet. But minimal." A naval officer reported to the captain.

"Storm? With their weaponry they could annihilate any army this world would throw at them." Captain Del Rio said. "Prepare the ODST for…"

The Infinity then began to shake…"What's going on?" Commander Lasky asked.

Roland then appeared on the holographic table. "We are being pulled by the planet!" Roland said.

"How?!" Captain Del Rio yelled.

"I don't know but we are heading straight into the planet's surface!" Roland responded.

"Make the engines to go back!" Commander Lasky ordered.

"I can't…they won't respond." Roland responded sounding worried.

Lasky and Del Rio then turned and looked as the Infinity drew closer and closer into the planet. This is nuts but something must be going on the planet!


	5. The Didact Cometh

_**The Core of the Planet**_

* * *

"There's something wrong." Cortana said.

"What is it?" The Chief asked.

"The beams coming from the sides are what are creating the interfering with the signal; we'll need to take them to contact the Infinity." Cortana answered. The Master Chief looked from the beams were coming from, the east and west sides of the center.

"Can you get us there?" Chief asked again.

"Opening a gate towards the first and second pylon." Cortana responded as another portal opened near them. "Pull me and let's go."

The Chief took the chip from the terminal and put in his helmet once more. He turned towards the Avatar and her companions who were still amazed by the interior of their world. "Listen up." Chief said with an authoritative voice, and they turned to look at his golden visor. "There are two pylons that are making a shield around the center; we need to take them out."

"How?" Korra asked.

"I will head towards the left pylon inside the cliffs, you and your group head towards the right one, inside the chasm." The Chief ordered.

"You're letting us go alone?" Mako asked as the sound of them fighting the armed aliens sounded outrageous. "We are going to get killed!"

"No you won't, you have something I don't have…you can control the elements around you, and one of you has the brains." The Master Chief said, they looked at each other again and nodded. "Good."

The SPARTAN-II walked towards the leftward portal, and stepped inside and disappeared. Team Avatar, as they have dubbed themselves looked at the portal they were going to step into. "Here we go…" Korra said.

They went inside and they were gone once more into the unknown.

* * *

_**Left Side Pylon**_

The Master Chief slowly made his way through the rocky cliffs and valleys, with his Assault Rifle at the ready. "Chief while I have been looking around the files that I just obtained from that terminal, I've found out the name of this Shield World and its purpose." Cortana said.

"What is it?" Chief asked as he peeked around a corner.

"The planet is designate 'Requiem' by the Forerunners. Its purpose was that it was a military headquarters…" Cortana answered.

"Wait, listen." The Chief interrupted her as shots of plasma were heard. He ran through several exposed caves and found bodies of Covenant foot soldiers and the remains of several Phantom dropships. "What happened here?" The Chief asked Cortana.

"Yeah…I was about to tell you that…" Cortana was about to continue when The Master Chief was shot on the back. His shields lighted up but held, he quickly turned around aiming his gun. That was fast…faster than plasma fire. He heard the screams of several Elites and Jackals being killed or worse.

Red dots appeared in his motion tracker, but something told the Chief it wasn't Covenant. Then from the top of the cliff a huge figure jumped down and onto the SPARTAN-II. The Chief didn't see it coming, the robotic looking foe then opened it's 'face' and a human burning skull screamed at the Master Chief.

The super-soldier acted quickly and freed his right hand and punched it away with one good strike. The mechanical beast jolted back, closing its false face once more and teleporting away. "What was that?" The Chief asked Cortana.

"That must be what the Covenant were jabbering about in their battlenet, it's definitely of Forerunner origin…some kind of defensive AI." Cortana answered. "Chief multiple hostiles! I recommend you to make a run for the pylon now!"

The Chief looking at his motion tracker saw too many red dots too count, he turned to see what was coming. Dozens of dog-like robot beasts were running towards him with one of those big ones leading them. Before the Chief could make his way towards the pylon, several Phantom dropships appeared, and began shooting the robotic AIs.

Special Operations Elites and Grunts were drop down, and began fighting the dog-like AIs. The Master Chief in the middle of a battle between the Covenant and the defense AI of the planet, the Master Chief did the only thing possible…he began to mix things up a little.

The super-soldier began fighting both sides, at the same time. Ripping through troops of defense AIs and Covenant Spec Ops troops, filling their black armors with lead.

He had arrived towards the Forerunner pylon. "Chief, up there!" Cortana yelled as explosions of battle were heard. "Those defense AIs, they are called Prometheans, and it seems like the Covenant woke them up!"

The Chief nodded to her information as he dodges plasma fire while he headed towards the top of the tower that connected to the pylon. On the top, one of those Promethean soldiers waited for him. "That's a Promethean Knight, but…but it looks different." Cortana informed.

The Promethean Knight had orange crystals on its back, and its facial mask was different from the one that attacked the Master Chief at first. The Promethean Knight then fired at the Chief, its gun firing orange rays at every the direction like a shotgun. The Chief covered himself from the fire, his shields being hit just a little. He then saw a plasma grenade lying on the floor, he took it.

With speeds that rivaled those of fast-paced vehicles, the Master Chief charged towards the Promethean Knight. It then took out a hard-light axe and swung it towards the Chief. The SPARTAN dodged the swing and placed the primed plasma grenade on the creature. The grenade exploded, making the knight explode in blue-orange light. "Was that data transfer?" Cortana asked herself.

"What?" The Chief asked.

"That thing…it sounded like it screamed painfully as it died but through data…look." Cortana answered and 'mentally pointed' at the glowing orb on the floor. It was what is left of the Promethean Knight, pure data. "Quickly head towards the pylon!"

The Chief ran towards the connecting bridge and took the elevator towards the top. There he tried to contact the Infinity once more but failing again. At the top, he found the source of the beam. "How do we close it?" The Chief asked.

"There, the lever." Cortana said as she placed an objective mark on the metallic lever. The Chief headed towards it and began to pull. The lever was hard, as if it was made to be pulled by something stronger than a SPARTAN. With great strength, the Master Chief pulled with all his might until he closed the beam all together. Then the frequency from the Infinity cleared up a bit.

"One down, one to go." Cortana said. A portal opened and the Chief ran inside of it.

* * *

_**Right Side Pylon**_

Team Avatar moved through a battlefield, avoiding the attacks of the Covenant as best as they could as Banshees fell from the sky. "Move! Move! Move!" Mako ordered his friends as they ran across the opened caverns that exploded from the plasma bombardments.

"This is suicidal!" Bolin yelled as he covered his head as pebbles fell on top of him as he ran. Korra earthbended walls of rock to prevent the battle from reaching them but every time she raised one, a Covenant Wraith tank would destroy it with its plasma mortar.

"That must be the pylon!" Asami pointed as the towering device came into view.

"Keep moving!" Korra yelled as the Promethean Knights began spawning around them.

"I'm not hearing the Covenant anymore." Bolin said as he ran.

"That…that means…" Mako tried to say but he was already experiencing fatigue. "Darn...you Bolin…and your…duplings."

Then a Promethean Knight jumped in front of them, it looked at them with its eyes and began to lowly growl. "Gah! One of those things!" Bolin yelled as he backed away.

"Stay back…" Korra said as they backed away slowly. Then Korra in one full motion earthbended the ground below the Promethean and crushed it on to the nearby rock wall. "Let's go before it stands up!"

They all began again to sprint towards the pylon and maybe rest.

Once they arrived to the pylon's base, they saw that the Covenant that had been stationed there had been all killed. Several ships and vehicles littered the ground and ancient bunkers. The Prometheans were moving the bodies of the dead Covenant away and were dissolving them with their weapons of light.

"Alright, here's the plan, we sneak through them…" Korra murmured.

"Sneak?" Mako asked.

"I know, I usually go for the punch but this is something else. The only entrance that we I can see is that one." Korra pointed towards the opened gate into the tower that connected to the pylon.

"What if there's more up top?" Asami asked. That was a good question, Korra began to look around.

"Ah." Korra said as she found a Covenant weapon on the floor, it was small but it was heavier than what it looked. "We used this."

"Do you even know how to work one of those things?" Mako asked.

"I just press the button and bam, how hard could it be?" Korra rhetorically asked. They made their way towards the entrance, the Promethean Knights and Crawlers didn't seem to notice them. For now, Korra's surprisingly smart plan was working.

The smell of the dried alien blood made Bolin want to hurl, but he kept it together once they reached the entrance. They went up and found themselves looking at a flying machine looking at them. "Uh oh." Korra said as her blue eyes widened as a Promethean Knight appeared behind them.

As fast as she could, she pointed the Plasma Pistol at the Knight and held on to the trigger for a second and fired. A fat green blast was shot out of the small yet heavy alien weapon and hit the Promethean Knight. The blast destroyed the machine's protective layer and made it fall on its back. The flying machine with round wings went for its aid as Team Avatar towards the connecting bridge.

Once they reached the elevator and made it go up, they could relax a bit. "That was the closest time I've come to getting killed." Bolin said.

"That was…too close." Mako added as he adjusted his jacket and hair. He looked at his hand, sweat. This has been really chaotic.

"What happens when we reach the top?" Asami asked Korra.

"I'm not sure, but things open up when you put your hands on them. I think we'll see how to turn off this thing once we get there." Korra answered.

After a handful of seconds more, they reached the top of the pylon. When the elevator's doors opened they were met with a radiant flash of light that came from the bean that the pylon shot out to the core.

"You see anything?" Mako asked as he covered his eyes.

"Uhh…" Korra said as she looked around while she partially blocked her eyes. "Found something."  
She walked towards a lever on the ground; it could probably turn off the pylon. She closed her eyes and pulled. "Ehnggg…." Korra grunted as she pulled but it didn't move.

"This thing is stuck pretty well." Korra said. "I might need some help."

They all then pulled on the lever, but it didn't give in. They pulled and pulled until a crank was heard. "Well at least we moved it a little." Asami said.

Korra then got around and began to push it down with her right leg. "Okay I won't do…Bolin get over here." She ordered.

Bolin then pushed down with his more muscled leg down the lever while the others pulled. Slowly the crank moved, until it finally went down enough to affect the beam. The pylon's beam began to slowly die out until it completely stopped.

"Yes!" They all rejoiced as a portal opened on the other side. "That must be the Chief." Asami said.

"Let's go!" Korra said as they all ran towards the portal.

* * *

_**Core**_

"Where are we now?" Mako asked as he looked around, he then saw a gigantic orange sphere floating on the other side of the metallic wall.

"We are in the center." The Master Chief answered as he walked pass them.

"That's the core?" Korra asked.

"Yes." The Chief simply responded as he kept walking towards the left side gate. Team Avatar followed the SPARTAN.

"All of this feels like one big nightmare." Mako said as he looked at the glowing sphere beyond the wall.

The gate opened and they were met with a battle already in progress. The Covenant seemed to be already trying to access the core but were intercepted by the Promethean Knights and Watchers who glowed in deep blue color.

"We have to make our way through the firefight and reach the control panel of the core on the other side." The Master Chief explained.

"Let's go through that side." Korra said as she pointed towards the side that was less populated with aliens.

"Good." The Chief said as he went towards that direction. Korra got a successful smirk at her brilliance this day.

They all went through the left side, defending themselves from both Elites and Knights. The Chief ripped through them with his Assault Rifle and Magnum pistol. Mako lightning bolts at the incoming Crawlers who exploded at contact with the electricity ray.

Korra shot fire towards the Watchers who didn't seem to tolerate it too much. Once they reached to the other side, close to the panels a golden Elite and a crystal-back Knight fought.

The Promethean Knight was shooting with a weapon that seemed to be vaporizing Grunts on contact with a big boom. The Elite avoided the attacks while it shot green balls of plasma from his Fuel Rod Gun. "Stay back." Chief ordered as he ran towards the Elite, he took out his combat knife and stabbed on the back.

The Elite fell on to the ground dead, then the Master Chief took the Fuel Rod and began to fire it at the Knight with greater accuracy. Once it was stunned back, the Chief sprinted so fast towards it that he looked like a blur in Korra's eyes.

The Chief struck the Promethean Knight in the gut, ripping through the shell and going deep into the circuitry inside. With his enhanced super-strength he ripped his hand out of the AI warrior. He quickly jumped away and when he landed on his feet, the Knight exploded into thousands of pieces.

"How…how did you make it explode?" Asami asked the Chief as she came out of her amazement.

"Fragmentation grenade." He responded blandly as they walked towards the two pillars that connected to the satellite.

"Chief the contacts." Cortana said, the Chief looked at the contacts that had the symbols of the Reclaimer on them and placed his hand on them.

"Infinity, this is Sierra One One Seven from the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn do you copy?" The Chief said as he tried to message the Infinity.

"_InfinTy this is Sieeraa one One seven…_" The satellite repeated what the Chief said. The SPARTAN looked at it.

"Infinity do you read!?" The Chief asked again and the satellite repeated what he said once more. The orange lined satellite began to float up.

The fighting Covenant and Prometheans stopped their conflict and looked at the rising sphere.

"Chief...Chief let go of the contacts." Cortana said.

"Find us an exit." The Chief said.

"Don't wait on my account." Cortana responded. The Master Chief turned towards the teens and quickly moved them into cover. Then the satellite released a shockwave that knocked the Elites and Knights into the ground.

The Chief and Korra then peeked over their cover to see what was going on, from the bottom of the sphere came out a pedestal and something was kneeled over it.

The Chief stopped from peeking while Korra kept on looking, completely dumbstruck from what she was looking at.

On the pedestal, the humanoid stood up and pieces of armor came to him. His arms, legs, and torso was then quickly armored up with some kind of protection similar in appearance of that of the Promethean Knights.

He then turned to look at where they where at and Korra quickly moved her head on to cover.

"_So fades the great harvest of my betrayal._" It said with a voice that could be heard everywhere. With a wave of his hand, all of the Prometheans that glowed deep-blue in color changed to dark orange. And the entire Covenant around kneeled before its presence. It then moved its floating pedestal towards where the Chief and Team Avatar were taking cover at.

"_Even these beasts recognize what you were oblivious to humans; your nobility has blinded you… as ever._" It said as with a thought erased the cover they were behind of. The Master Chief immediately stood up and aimed at the towering being but it with its hand froze the Chief in place. Korra was freeze too but the others were not. The Chief and she were then carried towards the alien by an unknown force that the alien commanded with its hand. They couldn't talk as they looked at the being, its eyes were deep, it had no pronounce nose and its bestial teeth were visible out of its mouth. Fur covered a portion of its head but what it was more surprising, it was way taller and bigger than the Chief in musculature and high even within the armor.

"_The Librarian left little to chance…didn't she? Turning my own guardians…my own world against me. But what hubris to believe she could hide her pets from me forever._" It said as he mentioned the name of an Ancient. Korra was not extremely confused but scared as well, the being moved its six-fingered hand around as it looked at Korra with a confused glance and then at the Chief with a more aggressive sight.

"_If you haven't mastered even these primitives then Man has not achieved the Mantle…_" It glanced at the Elites and the rest of the Covenant. "_…Your ascendance might yet still be prevented."_

"_Time was your ally humans, but now it has abandoned you._" It said with venom in its voice.

"_The Forerunners…have returned._" It said as a masked that resembled a skull assembled over its head. "_This tomb…is now yours._"

It then threw them away towards where they were hiding. The Master Chief made it able so when he fell, Korra would fall on top of him so she didn't break any bones. They landed on the metallic floor and were surrounded by the others.

"Korra! Chief!" They yelled as the Forerunner ascended back to his sphere, into the Cryptum.

The Master Chief stood up and woke Korra up in a hurry. "Slipspace rupture! Run!" Cortana yelled. The Chief turned and then push them all away into an opening and as the Cryptum went up into air the Chief jumped to join them and a white light surrounded the whole area.


	6. Next Stop, Certain Death

**The Core**

* * *

"Chief." Cortana said. "Chief!"

The Master Chief awoken and stood up quickly looking up as the core was collapsing on itself. "What's happening?" He asked.

"That...Didact. He manipulated infinity's signal to get us to release him!" Cortana answered. "He's moving the satellite into slipspace destabilizing the core. "

As she said that, two Covenant Phantom dropships were pulled into a crash course into each other, the explosion of their impact shook the Chief. One of the dropships exploded as the other one crashed into the canyon the SPARTAN was standing within. "The Didact's leaving! We have to find a portal before the whole system collapses!"

"Where are the others?" The Master Chief asked as he looked for the teenagers who were accompanying him.

"Marking their locations, we need to get them and get the hell out of here!" Cortana answered. They were together, somewhere close but the crumbling area around the super-soldier would make that a difficulty. The Didact's ship was making a space-time storm above them, sucking everything towards it.

The Chief looked around, next to the crashed Phantom dropship, there was an intact Covenant Shadow troop transport vehicle. He hadn't seen those in years. The Chief ran towards and pushed the dead drive off the controlling seat of the vehicle. He got on.

"Give me a second to take control of…" Cortana was about to say.

"No time." The Chief responded as he turned the troop transport on. He took it out of the rubble and made his way to were the Avatar and her companions where.

"Ugh…what happened?" Bolin asked as he woke up. "I had the weirdest dream, that we were following this armored guy in a journey deep within the world, fighting monsters with light swords and that shooted light balls, and then we awoke this rather powerful nose-less guy from sleep."

"Bolin that happened, we were knocked out." Asami responded.

"Oh." Bolin said. "Hey look!"

They all looked up as the whole core was being destroyed by the Didact as he left the center of 'Requiem'. "That's not good." Korra said.

"Where's the Star-Lord?" Mako asked as he looked around, they were surrounded by the bodies of dead Covenant soldiers.

Then a rather big purple vehicle tore through the rocks. "Get in, now." The Master Chief ordered, rather calm for the chaos happening around him.

"Right." Korra said as they all jumped inside the Shadow troop transport. "We're in!"

The Master Chief nodded, he then drove into the waypoint Cortana made that marked the nearest active portal. As they went on, the canyon was beginning to collapse. The rockwalls were falling behind them as the ground shook. "I'm going to use your shield generator to amplify the Shadow's speed boost." Cortana said.

"Do it." The Chief replied. His shields flicked as the boosting ability of the Covenant vehicle went over drive. The Master Chief did all he could to avoid falling hazards and holed in the ground. Korra and the others watched the still living Covenant troops running for their lives trying to escape the destruction but were crushed by rocks or plummeted to their doom.

"The core's not going to last much longer!" Cortana yelled.

Magma and rocks jumped from the ground as the boulders of metal fell over their heads. The Chief kept going on, running through rock walls and obstacles.

"Portal! Up ahead!" Cortana said as the portal could be seen ahead. The Chief stomped on the acceleration pedal and went full throttle.

"Ahhh!" The Avatar and her companions screamed as the Shadow went over the precipice and towards the fading portal.

* * *

**Shield World**

The Shadow went through and appeared into a world that looked similar to that was on the surface. But the skies were limited by a ceiling…

The Shadow wasn't stopping for nothing, the Chief tried to put on the brakes but they were going too fast and were heading towards a cliff. The Chief thought fast and pressed a button that separated the transport cargo and the driver's seat.

That way he saved the Avatar and her friends. He looked towards the coming cliff. "Whoa there cowboy!" Cortana said loudly as the Chief swiftly moved the driver cockpit to the left, and jumped out by propelling himself off. He landed on his feet as the vehicle fell into the foggy bottom of the precipice.

"Chief look!" Cortana said. As the SPARTAN was joined by Korra and the rest, a gigantic ship broke through the clouds, entering through the opened gate of the shield world.

"Wow…" Mako said as he gazed upon the finest space ship created by human hands, the UNSC Infinity as it descended down.

"Mayday! Mayday! This is the captain of the UNSC Infinity! Unknown entity has seized control of our ship! We're without power, and on a collision course with an unidentified Forerunner planet!" The voice of the captain was heard through the Chief's radio.

"It's going down!" Asami said. The Infinity was falling slowly into the jungle valley beyond.

"Track it's descend." The Chief said.

"Marking: Impact predicted 77.8 kilometers due north." Cortana responded.

Then the massive structure satellite, The Didact's Cryptum hovered up behind the Chief and his young companions. "By the Spirits!" Bolin yelled as the round ship, hovered in front of them.

"Its the Ancient!" Korra yelled. The ship then scanned them, and flew towards the Infinity.

"He's going…" Mako said as the ship left.

"Same place we are." The Master Chief interrupted as he began to walk towards the crash site of the UNSC Infinity.


	7. Combat Evolved

**UNSC Infinity**

* * *

The bridge was in chaos, officers and crewmen rush from post to post, trying to bring the behemoth of a ship that the Infinity is back online.

"Sir, we lost contact with the ODSTs we dropped before we entered the shield world. The surface has gone dark!" An officer informed.

"I want an analysis done on the FTL drives and back-up generators! Why the hell aren't they responding?!" Captain Del Rio demanded as he looked at the holographic map in front of him.

"Commander Lasky." The captain said.

"Yes sir?" Thomas Lasky asked.

"Notify Commander Palmer and Castle Team, you are going out to explore what the hell the condition outside is. I don't want any surprises." Del Rio ordered.

"Right away sir." Lasky saluted and then he walked away from the bridge. Captain Del Rio turned around and walked towards the command window, from there he saw trees…thousands of trees, a jungle. Where have they crashed into?

"Sir, Commander Lasky, a group of SPARTANs and two Marine squads have left to their recon mission." An officer said.

"Good." Del Rio responded.

"We got something sir. Outside the main batteries, a vessel of unknown origin is scanning the ship and its being followed by several Covenant Storm CRS-class battlecruisers." Another crewman informed.

"Hell…" Del Rio said.

* * *

**Jungle, Inside the Shield World…twenty minutes later**

The Master Chief, the Avatar and her companions walked through the jungle, going over rocks and ducking under branches. The hike they took was a long one until the Chief suddenly stopped. Korra and the rest crouched when the Master Chief did.

"Stay low; recon sortie heading this way." Cortana informed.

"We're near the crash site." The super-soldier informed Korra and the rest. The Master Chief walked slowly towards a clearing that allowed him to see the crashed UNSC ship and the Didact's Cryptum floating next to it. Covenant Storm support troops flew over them, towards the ship.

"The ship looks intact." Cortana said.

"Something tells me that's only because the Didact wanted it that way." The Master Chief responded, seeing how the Didact hadn't reduced the gargantuan human space ship into nothing more than ashes.

Korra saw how the Star-Lord communicated with the Spirit, talking about the crashed Star-Lord ship and the Ancient not destroying it. This ancient, the Didact, seemed to not like the Star-Lords at all.

"This is Lasky to UNSC Infinity. We're up to our necks in bad guys down here. Does anyone read?" A familiar voice sounded through the comm channels.

"This is Sierra 117 of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn. We're on station, ready to assist." The Master Chief replied to the commander, acknowledging his call.

"Negative copy, sounded like you said 'Forward Unto Dawn'? Come again…" Lasky said before his voice was cut out.

"Signal's bouncing in and out; I can't clean it up." Cortana explained the interference.

"Light up their friend-or-foe tags; we're gonna need something to zero in on." The Master Chief said as he stood up firmly looking at the Cryptum scanning the UNSC ship.

The SPARTAN turned to look at his companions, the kids looked around wondering their surroundings, and he shook his head in an 'I can't believe I have to carry them along'. The only one seemed to be more focused was the girl that made first contact with him, the Avatar.

"Avatar, take this." The Chief said as he threw his M6H Magnum to the surprised Korra who catch it by the grip. "You'll need it if we split up in the jungle."

"T-Thanks." Korra said feeling honored that the Star-Lord had given her one of his holy weapons. Asami peeked over her shoulder to see the pistol.

"That's amazing…look at the craftsmanship of the weapon." Asami said in awe.

"We should go before any of the Beasts catches up with us." Mako said, when they turned to look at the Star-Lord, he had vanished. They saw his movement through the plants that led towards the dense jungle and they followed.

The Master Chief walked cautiously aiming his Assault Rifle in all directions before moving in a small jog and taking cover behind a tree. He looked… nothing, no movement or sleeping Grunts anywhere. Where is the Covenant?

The others got to where he was. "Chief, I got a scan of a friendly tag somewhere close by." Cortana said.

"Mark a NavPoint." The Chief responded and almost instantaneously an arrow appeared in his Head-Up Display signaling the location of the friendly tag. "We got a friendly."

"Finally, another Star-Lord we can talk to." Mako said.

"Be ready, he might be totally different from the Master Chief." Asami warned.

"Yeah, keep it cool." Korra added.

"Heh…cool." Bolin remarked as the followed the towering SPARTAN.

As they went on through the dense and green jungle, they heard what it sounded like screams. Of bones being cracked and guts being sliced. Once he heard this with his super-human hearing, the Master Chie rushed towards the screams in lightning speed, a blur to the eyes of Korra and the others.

As the Master Chief ran towards the falling IFF tag, a Promethean Crawler ambushed him. The metallic Forerunner dog tried bite Chief's visor, but the SPARTAN lifted the smaller defense AI and crushed it with his might. But once he killed the Crawler, dozens more seemed to replace it as they came out from the surrounding brushes and trees.

"They are coming out of the woodwork! Chief watch out!" Cortana warned the SPARTAN as he quickly saw his motion tracker and rolled out of the way. A Promethean Knight struck the grassy ground with his hard-light axe; it tried to get the Master Chief from the back. It roared as it took its axe out of the ground, revealing it's glowing orange human skull beneath its death mask.

The Master Chief began shooting the Crawlers that had assembled and were now aiding the Knight against the SPARTAN. Chief seemed to be out-numbered, his Assault Rifle not doing enough damaged to the Knight as multiple Crawlers jumped in the way.

The Knight then fired its weapon; a hard-light shot struck the Master Chief, making his energy shields glow. Thinking fast, the Master Chief took out a plasma grenade, obtained from an Elite's corpse, activated it and threw it at the Knight. But instead of sticking on its armor plating, a small bean grabbed it and threw back to him.

The plasma grenade exploded, taking out some Crawlers in the process. The Chief looked, one of those 'Watchers' appeared behind the Knight. That meant that grenades were useless until he took care of the flying defense AI.

The others arrived in time, once they saw the Knight and the flying Watcher behind it, giving it support, they fired. Korra didn't know how to work the pistol so when she tried to fire, nothing came out. Mako shot lightning at the Knight, while Bolin threw small boulders at the Watcher. Asami looked around for something useful and found on the ground a weapon of the Ancients. She grabbed it, and as if she knew about her whole life began to fire at the Knight with a hail of hard-light bullets.

"Hold on, how in the Spirits' names do you know how to work that thing!?" Korra yelled, asking Asami how she could control that ancient gun and she didn't know how to use this simpler pistol.

"I don't know, once a grabbed it I knew how to shoot it." Asami responded.

"Safety's on." The Master Chief said as he came out of cover and unleashed hell on the Promethean Knight by throwing a fragmentation grenade at it since the Watcher was too busy with Bolin throwing rocks at it.

"What?!" Korra asked.

"The little switch on the side of the handle, move it down." The Chief responded.

Korra looked down at the gun, there it was! She couldn't understand the writing on it, but she moved the switched down and heard a little release coming from within the weapon. Now she could fire it and make the Star-Lord proud.

The Promethean Knight's shields were down once one of Mako's lightning bolts got right on the chest, in all of its fury, the Knight roared highly while revealing its glowing skull. Korra aimed down, having seen Metalbending cops using guns similar to this one, and shot at the Promethean's skull. The recoil made Korra fall on her back while the 12.7x40mm bullet flew through the air and struck in target.

The Knight screamed in pain as its metal body fell on the floor and began to vanish. The Chief ended the Watcher as he shot at it as it fled. Mako and Bolin helped Korra up, her arm hurt a bit. "How…how do you resist the recoil from that thing?" Korra asked Asami as she held the Forerunner weapon with on hand.

"It's light, as if accustomed itself to my biology. I don't feel a thing when I fire it." Asami explained as she looked at the weapon on her hand, it was as majestic as it was deadly. "I'll call these weapons, Supressors, since they suppress recoil."

"Good job." Master Chief said as he joined the group. "All of you."

They smiled at the Master Chief whose helmet and visor hid his face but they thought that beneath it a god was smiling to them too. "They need our help." The Chief said as he focuses on the mission once more.

The nodded and followed. Once they arrive on the battlescene, they saw multiple dead bodies. The Covenant had been here alright, but they had been killed.

"What happened here? Where are the Star-Lords?" Korra asked the Chief as he walked towards a body hidden beneath the tall grass.

"IFF tag confirmed." Cortana said. "The tag IDs him as Jimenez, Paolo J."

"Then Lasky's still out there somewhere." The Chief responded.

Korra and Mako approached the Chief and looked at the body beneath their feet. "It's…its human." Korra said in disbelief.

It was a man, fully armored up, but his face was visible. He looked completely human; he looked like a Water Tribe man. "The Star-Lords…they are human." Mako said upon the revelation.

The Master Chief looked around, seeing the traces of scorched earth. The Prometheans had made the jump on both parties and took them out as they fought. The Marines and the Covenant soldiers hadn't seen them coming. "I want answers." Korra yelled at the Master Chief as she furiously walked towards him. The SPARTAN stood back up, towering over the Avatar.

"You lied! You are no Star-Lord! We are fighting one of the Ancients because of you and these people's fault!" Korra yelled at the super-soldier who looked at her quietly.

"You're right, I am no god." The Master Chief responded after what seemed to be an eternity, Asami and Bolin walked towards them after hearing what Korra said. "But the Didact isn't either."

"What are you talking about!? Haven't you seen what he can do!?" Korra yelled again.

"Yes we have." Cortana said through the Chief's speakers. "What you've been told for centuries has just been mythology, these Star-Lords are actually very much human like you and the Chief here…well more like you."

"Mythology!?" Mako yelled too in anger. "Now you question our believes, what's next? You are going to tell us that the Spirits are fake too when we have the Avatar here to proof their existence!?"

"We will talk about this later, but right now screaming won't get us anywhere while the Prometheans are hunting us." The Master Chief said to deaf ears. "If we don't stop the Didact now, here, he is going to kill everyone outside."

"Okay." Korra said as she tried to calm herself. "When we get to that 'space' ship of yours, we will talk about this." She knew better, she couldn't risk the safety of her world and her people. She was the Avatar after all.

The Master Chief nodded. "Gather any weapons and ammo you can take, there are going to be more Prometheans on our way to the Infinity." He said as he reloaded his Assault Rifle.


	8. United Nations Space Command

**Jungle**

* * *

The Master Chief and his now conflicted teammates went through the dense jungle in a tense silence. The revelation that the Star-Lords were actually humans and not some kind of god-like beings made Korra and the rest question the old tales told ages ago by their ancestors. Should they question the Spirits now? Should Korra question her role now?

The Master Chief then stopped, he then raised his arm up and made a fist, it meant stop. Something came up. "Covenant." He said as he readied his Assault Rifle and took cover behind a tree. The rest followed suit, readying their stolen Promethean guns.

"Har, yu barka crag." One of the Elites said as it commanded the Grunts to move faster. The Master Chief's translation module had been busted after the Battle of Installation 00 and his escape out of Halo as it blew up. "Garrr…" It said as it held an IFF tag in its hand.

"Lasky's squad must be close." Cortana said to the Chief. The super-soldier nodded, and looked at the Avatar and her companions. He moved two of his fingers in a forward direction, Korra at first didn't understand what he meant but when she saw at what he was pointing at it became a little clearer.

She nodded in acknowledgement. The Chief then made a fist, which meant…attack. She quickly turned to her friends. "Guys, we are going to attack the Beasts in the clearing ahead." She informed.

"They won't see us coming." Mako said as he prepared the Lightrifle in his hands. They all then stood up and fired at the Covenant Storm squadron, taking them by surprise and allowing the Master Chief an opportunity to tag the leading red armored Elite with his rifle. The Elite's shields held, but they were being severely damaged by the fire of the hardlight guns.

The Grunts were quickly taken down, while the Jackal in the squadron raised it plasma shield up, covering itself from the barrage of light bullets. "Bolin, shoot it at its feet!" Mako told his brother, he nodded and fired away, getting the bird-like alien in the talons.

The Jackal screamed in pain and lowered its shield, giving Korra an opening and shot the Jackal in the head with her Magnum. The alien fell on the grass ground, only the red Elite remained.

The Master Chief, seeing that most of the Covenant soldiers were mowed down, quickly came out of cover and ran towards where the Elite was hiding at. Knowing that this would close-combat he took out his combat knife and stabbed the Elite in the neck before it even reacted. The SPARTAN assassinated the big alien officer and let it fall on the ground.

"Promethean signals getting close." Cortana informed. "We better keep heading towards the last IFF point before we become Promethean dinner."

"Understood." The Chief replied. "Let's keep going towards the last IFF tag signal."

"We better get an explanation once we get there." Korra said in an irritated voice as the followed the Master Chief.

After some minutes of walking they arrived on a closed Forerunner gate, several UNSC crates could be seen around the area. The Master Chief noticed a nearby DMR lying on top of one of the weapon crates. He hadn't seen one in years, he took it to replace the Magnum he gave Korra.

"More weapons." Asami said as she picked up a nearby grenade.

"Don't pull the pin." The Chief warned.

"Why?" Asami asked.

"If you do, half of your body would be turned into a fleshy mess." The Chief responded in a dull voice.

"Oh." Asami said as she placed the grenade back on top of the green cylindrical crate. Sandbags had been placed around as well, in haste as it could be seen. The marines hadn't been enough time to prepare before the Prometheans arrived.

"Chief! Multiple IDs! Behind the gate, they are friendly!" Cortana informed the Master Chief.

The gate opened, taking Korra and her friends by surprise. They turned to see if the Chief opened it but they were met with several armored men walking out of the gate. Wearing different kinds of armors, similar yet vastly different from the Master Chief's. They didn't know what to do, but they drop their weapons on the ground as soon as one of the apparent 'Star-Lords' walked towards them.

"Afraid we're gonna have to give you an IOU on that welcome home party." A shorter uniformed man said as he casually walked out of the structure. "Tom Lasky, First Officer of the UNSC Infinity. Never though I'll see you again." He said as he shook hands with old SPARTAN-II.

Lasky looked at the kids being escorted inside by two SPARTAN-IVs. "Still leading kids I see?" Lasky asked in casual tone.

"They covered my flank." The Chief responded.

"Seal her up!" Another SPARTAN ordered, a woman inside a white MJOLNIR suit without helmet, said as she walked towards them. She looked at the Master Chief… "Thought you'd be taller." She teased once she got a full look of the Chief; even so he was much taller.

"…ground forces are ordered to return to Infinity immediately." The captain's voice could be heard from a nearby radio.

"Commander! Radio's hot!" The communications marine said.

They entered the structure, the other SPARTANs sealing it completely. They formed around the marine and listened to the radio. "…respond to comm…" The captain sounded irritated.

"On what frequency?" The captain asked. "What frequency dammit!"

"Infinity, this is Commander Lasky. Pelican recon teams are down. Repeat. All birds are down. We've got numerous casualties and require immediate assistance. Over." Lasky reported to the captain.

"Finally…did you get the coordinates to that gravity well?" The captain asked.

"Affirmative, Sir. But we're going to need a bus out of here." Lasky responded, putting his men above the mission.

"Make it happen." The captain ordered, cutting communications.

"You were sent on a scouting run in the middle of an attack on the ship. " Cortana said, noticing the faulty orders.

"The Captain thought Infinity could provide us cover and hold off an attack at the same time." Lasky explained.

"Sir, we'll never get the wounded back to the ship on foot." The commanding Spartan, Commander Sarah Palmer, said.

Lasky began to think until a realization came to him. They now had the Master Chief, the legendary soldier who destroyed Halo twice, ended the Human-Covenant War and saved he galaxy, with them now. "I don't know if it's too soon to ask you for a favor but we're going to run out of breathing room here real quick." He said as he stood up. "I don't suppose you're any good at clearing LZs? "

"On occasion." The Chief responded. "I'll send out an all clear once the area's secured."

Korra and her friends were being led to what it appeared to be an airship, but it looked more like a bird than a flying vehicle. "Whoa…that's your flying machine?" Asami asked the SPARTAN IV scouting them.

"Affirmative, this is a Pelican Dropship. This colony is really backwards isn't it?" The SPARTAN asked.

"Colony?" Bolin asked.

"Who are these people?" A marine asked the SPARTAN IV as they came up the ramp of the dropship.

"They were with the Master Chief; take them to the Infinity for safety. I think that the commander and captain will like to talk to them." The Spartan informed the pilot.

"Not without a clear air space I am not." The pilot said. "Wait did you just say the Master Chief?"

"Yes I did." The Spartan confirmed as he directed Korra and the rest to their seats.

"Why are we going with them?" Mako whispered to Korra.

"It's the only safe place we can go, and we can get answers there." Korra whispered back, Mako understood.

The Master Chief exited the structure, going towards the LZ that Lasky had told him where the Pelicans could enter to pick up the wounded and escort the Pelicans that were still operational out of the hot zone.

A squad of Marines was waiting for him, with a more experienced group of soldiers; the Master Chief was able to mow down several Promethean Knights as he continued on towards the LZ. He arrived towards another gate.

"The Marines got trapped trying to get through these doors. Look for an interface." Cortana said. "These doors open to cave system with a space large enough for an LZ."

The Chief placed Cortana inside the panel so she could open the doors for them. "This is going to take a while, hold off the Prometheans while I try to open these doors." Cortana informed.

The Master Chief then ordered the surviving Marines to prep up for any attacks, manning the machine gun turrets around and reloading their rifles. A wise order since the Prometheans came back at full force; about four Knights came leading dozens of Crawlers and several Watchers. This was going to be tough but the UNSC Marines had the higher ground.

"Cortana? How close are we?" The Chief asked.

"I-I 'll dooo my job and yooouuu do yoursss aokay?" Cortana said in an aggressive tone, sounding more digital again. Rampancy was kicking in. "Gates ready, come and get me." Cortana sounded normal again.

The Chief went back to the interface, and retrieved Cortana from it. The doors opened, revealing the cave system. The Master Chief went inside, leading the surviving Marines to clear the LZ.

"I'm sorry about back there." Cortana apologized for her rampant outburst. "That hatch's security was more difficult than I expected."

"It's all right." The Chief said, trying to keep her calm.

"It's not all right. Nothing about it's all right." Cortana said.

Once The Master Chief arrived by the end of the tunnel he noticed a Promethean Knight standing at the end of it. "Knight! Wait…what's he doing?" Cortana asked as they both looked at the Knight giving commands.

"Covenant?" The Master Chief asked.

"They're working with the Prometheans?" Cortana asked rhetorically, something was going on.

The Chief nevertheless attacked both parties, shot the Grunts in the head with his DMR, bring all of them down efficiently. The Knight teleported away, not wanting a head on fight with the Chief just yet. It ordered the Jackals to shoot at the SPARTAN from long-range.

As he took cover behind a nearby tree, the Chief noticed a new type of UNSC weapon he had never seen before. He picked it up; his Heads-Up Display informed him that it was a Railgun. This would come in handy.

Thinking strategically, it would be more effective to kill the Promethean Knight giving out the orders to the Covenant Jackals. He looked at the Knight; it was still giving out orders. With his fast reflexes he ran out of cover and aimed at the Knight with his Railgun. It took four seconds to prime and fire, but it all felt like milliseconds for the Master Chief.

The Promethean Knight exploded into pieces as the round of the Railgun ripped it apart with its fast speed. The Jackals kept firing at the Chief, but without a leader they didn't know what to do, they couldn't flank the SPARTAN.

With his DMR, he countered the Jackals and took them out each with four bullets to the brain, four shots, and four kills. As soon as the last Jackal fell down on the ground dead, a Covenant Phantom dropship arrived with more foot soldiers. This time accompanied by two Elites and another Knight.

The super-soldier loaded his Railgun, and prepared for the battle. He was joined by the other Marines who he had told to stay put as he took care of the Knight, but it looked like they were eager to aid the Master Chief in combat.

Meanwhile, Korra, Mako, Bolin and Asami were bored out of their minds as they waited for the all clear. They just sat inside the damaged Pelican, looking around but not being able to step outside without the SPARTAN IV telling them that its 'too dangerous'. They had already taken down many Promethean soldiers; they can take care of themselves.

"So…you're a…" Mako said, trying to start a conversation with the pilot who was looking at some files.

"I'm a UNSC Marine Corps pilot." He responded.

"Oh…what's the UNSC?" Mako asked.

"And what's a marine?" Bolin added.

"Seriously?" The SPARTAN IV asked them, not believing that they didn't have some kind of Marine Corps.

"Our military has a navy and army but we've never heard of a marine corps." Asami explained.

"Well since this isn't really some kind of classified information…the UNSC stand for the United Nations Space Command. We are a military organization from the Unified Earth Government. We are their military, science and research branch." The pilot told them.

"Unified Earth Government? Is that where you come from?" Korra asked.

"Yeah, we all, even if we were born in different planets, we all originate from planet Earth. Our homeworld." The Spartan IV answered. "But something tells me you don't."

"How does Earth look like?" Asami asked.

"It has blue skies, blue oceans, clear air, great cities, etc. I couldn't think of a better home." The pilot answered, clearly showing that he was born and raised on Earth. "Actually, it kinda looks like the surface of this planet but with more continents."

"Are there nations on Earth?" Korra asked, wondering if they too had an Avatar.

"There are 196 countries On Earth, each independent but ultimately united under the Unified Earth Government." The Spartan IV answered.

Wow…196 nations, Korra's world only had five. "Does someone represent all of the nations?" Korra asked again.

"Politically it's the chairman of the UEG, militaristic it's Fleet Admiral Lord Hood." The pilot responded.

"Spiritually?" Korra asked once more, curiosity getting the better of her.

"Spiritually? Kid, we are well beyond those kinds of things." The Spartan IV responded as he smirked and crossed his arms.

"Don't listen to him; we don't really have that type of leadership. Sure most of us believe in some kind of higher force but we've learn to separate religion and state." The pilot explained. "We just believe in whatever we want, even in ourselves."

Korra thought about this deeply, maybe these 'Star-Lords' weren't so bad after all. But that didn't explain why the old text made them such a big deal, they were as human as she was. But they hadn't bended at all since she saw them, the Master Chief relied on guns and on his brute strength.

"Are you able to…bend?" Korra asked them both.

"Bend? Like metal, yeah I can bend metal with my hands." The Spartan IV said as he took a nearby assault rifle and easily ripped it in two.

"No, not that type of bending objects, but bending the elements." Korra explained.

"Bending the elements?" The pilot asked.

"Like this." Mako said as he made a small flame come out of his finger tip.

"What the?" The Spartan IV said as he took a closer look. "Did you just make fire without some kind of mechanical help?"

"Uh-huh." Mako responded as he created a big flame on top of his palm.

"Amazing…you have super-powers." The pilot said.

"This is common in most of our people; we can all bend except for Asami." Mako said.

"Eh." Asami shrugged.

"And Korra can bend all four main elements like: fire, earth, water and recently air." Bolin informed. "She's the Avatar."

"The what?" The Spartan IV asked.

"The Avatar, the spiritual bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds, able to bend the four elements at will." Bolin answered.

"Bridge between…two worlds?" The pilot asked as he thought. "Hmm…"

"What is it?" The Spartan IV asked the pilot.

"The captain will really want to see them, they are not normal humans." The pilot said. "I just hope that the captain doesn't tell the spooks about them."

"Yeah, I hate the spooks." The Spartan IV agreed.

"Spooks." Korra asked.

"Don't worry about those eggheads for now; you will have a long talk with Captain Del Rio and Commander Lasky once we get to the Infinity." The Spartan IV told her.


	9. Intermission

**Caves, Jungle**

* * *

The cave system was a battered battlefield, the fight had lasted more than was thought. The Covenant Storm had been pouring troops to kill the SPARTAN-II and his squad of UNSC Marines. But with enough firepower, they had been dealt with efficiently.

"Cortana to Lasky, LZ is secure. " Cortana informed through the comm channels.

"Copy that Cortana, I'll send in the coordinates." Lasky responded.

"MAYDAY! MAYDAY! CODE RED! HOSTILE ELMENTS INTENTING TO GAIN ENTRANCE TO THE INFINITY BRIDGE!" The voice of a marine ripped through their conversation. "We're outside the hatch! Door's breach! Door's breach!"

The sounds of plasma hitting and melting metal could be heard through the channels. "All units return to the Infinity immediately! That's an order!" Commander Lasky ordered to the remaining units still outside the ship. "Chief, I'm retracting the SPARTAN-IV forces to rally point Alpha Sierra Foxtrot. Do what you can; you are in tactical command of the force. Rendezvous with those men and get back to the ship!"

"Yes sir." The Chief acknowledge.

"Good luck Chief. Lasky out." Lasky then ended communications. A pelican dropship then arrived to pick the Master Chief and the remaining Marines up.

"What about Korra and the others?" Cortana asked the super-soldier.

"They're in safe hands." The Master Chief responded as he got inside the dropship. "They won't be alone."

Meanwhile in the dropship that Korra and company where waiting in.

"Just got word, commander is ordering all SPARTAN units to fall back to rally point Alpha Sierra Foxtrot." The SPARTAN-IV informed them.

"That far back?" The pilot asked.

"Also, the Covenant forces have been dealt with, air space secured." The Spartan informed again. "Looks like you are going in to safety." He said as to the teenagers.

"We would like some answers when we get there." Korra said.

"Talk with any of the officers when you get to the Infinity, I have to hitch a ride to the rally point and meet up with the others." The Spartan said as he jumped out of the Pelican.

"Wait, you never told us your name." Asami said.

"Name's Tom." The Spartan said as he smirked and placed his helmet back on. "Cortez, take them back to the Infinity."

"Will do." The pilot said as he stepped back into the cockpit. The dropship began to hover into the air; Asami looked down at the Spartan who began to jog into the caves. She was intrigued by this Star-Lord…or rather Spartan.

"Alright, once we get to their ship we will head right into the Captain's office and lay it on him." Korra said.

"You sure they'll let us walk right into their boss's room?" Bolin asked.

"If they don't we can take them…right?" Mako added.

"Let's just not get on their bad said okay?" Asami responded. The pelican flew through the skies, following the other pelican dropships that were evacuating wounded and scientists.

* * *

**UNSC Infinity**

The pelican landed inside one of the secured pelican bays. "We're here, safe and sound." Cortez said as he the pelican's engines turned off.

"This...is the Infinity?" Korra asked in awe as they stepped out of the pelican. The docking bay was immense, easily bigger than any throne room on Korra's world. She saw many people around, soldiers running to their dropships, staff maintaining the bay and beeping sounds coming from several devices.

"Are these the people that the Chief was protecting, staff sergeant?" A voice sounded through the Cortez's comms.

"Yes sir." Cortez responded.

"Send them to the bridge ASAP." The captain ordered.

"Aye aye." Cortez acknowledge. "Skipper seems jumpy, follow me to the bridge."

"That was easy." Bolin said as they followed Staff Sergeant Cortez out of the docking bay.

"Just stay cool when we meet their captain, we don't know what he'll ask us." Korra said.

"Noted." Mako said.

In the bridge of the Infinity, Captain Andrew Del Rio was communicating with the on-world forces who had managed to contact the Infinity. "Gunnery Sergeant, tell me your position!" Del Rio said in a loud and commanding voice.

"Too many Covenant….*static*….we barely made it out of the city council chamber…*static*….we are on a city called...*static*….Republican City?" The gunny responded. "Republic City, roger."

"Send me the coordinates." Del Rio said.

"Our…*static*…specialist was shot down half a click from our….*static*….position. Equipment blasted off too." The gunny responded.

"Damn…reunite all ground side forces and any local militia you can find, I need you alive gunnery sergeant." Del Rio said.

"Yes sir, Gunnery Sergeant Buck out." The signal then ended. Del Rio then rubbed the sides of his forehead and then activated his personal comm channels. "Commander Lasky, where the hell are you?"

"Just got out of my pelican sir, I'm heading to the bridge." Lasky answered.

"Okay." Del Rio said as he turned the comm off.

"Sir!" Cortez said as he entered the bridge and took stance.

"At ease." Del Rio said and Cortez relaxed.

"These are the people." Cortez said as he showed the captain the teens saved from the jungle.

"Teenagers? These are the people that the Master Chief risked his neck to protect?" Del Rio asked, sounding not too pleased.

"Sir, these individuals are unique among their people. Especially this one, sir." Cortez informed as he pointed towards Korra.

"Unique…unique? I'm fighting a goddamn united armada of Covenant troops and rogue AIs and their commander at the same time and you're telling me that these nine year olds can save us from this?!" Del Rio yelled at the pilot.

"Whoa there…he's right." Korra stepped in. "We natives of this world."

"Okay…" Del Rio tried to calm down, he was extremely frustrated with the situation they were right now. "…who are you and what the hell is going on?

"My name is Korra and I'm the Avatar of this world." Korra introduced herself. "And these are my friends."

"Our world was attacked by the beasts you called the Covenant, and we were trying to evacuate the cities." Mako added. "That's when Korra found the Chief."

"What happened?" Del Rio asked.

"I'm not sure but it looked like the skies were falling and that the Chief fell from the sky along with his ship and crashed down into the city…my city." Korra answered. "When we followed the Chief in here…into the center of the planet we accidently unleashed something…"

"Unleashed what?" Del Rio asked again.

"We unleashed the Didact." Asami answered. "An Ancient." As she finished saying that, Lasky stepped inside the bridge.

"I'm here captain." Lasky said as he saluted the captain.

"Commander, how are the main batteries?" Del Rio asked his first officer.

"Still off-line, but the Master Chief has already paved the way into the Infinity and is awaiting orders sir." Lasky informed.

"Good, I will contact him. Take any info you can from them." Del Rio said as he turned around and walked towards his command chair.

"He's a charming dude." Korra said as she crossed her arms.

"Oh you met the captain." Lasky said as he looked at Korra. "I'm Commander Thomas Lasky, second-in-command of this ship."

"I'm Korra." She shook his hand.

"Good to see that not everyone is losing a nerve in here." Bolin said. Lasky looked at Cortez and nodded, telling him that he could return to this pelican now. Cortez saluted him and walked off from the bridge.

"You'll have to forgive the captain for his…renegade personality; we are all in a tight situation right now." Lasky said as he waved his hand in a follow me motion. The others then followed him away from the bridge and into the living quarters.

"Listen…uh…Commander, we want to know exactly the situation with these Covenant and your people, you guys are as human as we are but…why do you come from the stars?" Korra asked Lasky as they walked down the metal corridors of the Infinity. "I mean, look at this place, it's something out of legend…legends that we used to believe."

"To tell you the truth, I have no idea either." Lasky truthfully answered. "Sit down and relax a bit."

"Relax? How can we when our world is being ravaged outside…I mean up there." Mako said, a little anger coming out of his voice.

"We already sent troopers to secure several cities, all we can do now is wait until the Chief and the SPARTANs bring power to main batteries and we can drive the Covenant ships off." Lasky said as he too sat down and rubbed his eyes.

"I take it you are also tired like the rest?" Asami asked the Commander.

"Yeah…my life is full of surprises. The Chief told me about you guys as he cleared the cave from hostiles, real calm under fire and what he didn't tell me, Cortana sent to my arm-tool." Lasky said.

"Did he tell you about our abilities and my status in world?" Korra asked Lasky.

"That he did. I just can't wrap my mind around spirits and out-wordly places that only the Avatar, you, have access." Lasky said. "When I was your age, I almost died…twice. But I never had so much weight on my shoulders like you do."

"I learned how to balance my tasks through time…I have a good teacher and good friends too." Korra said.

Lasky smiled as he saw how connected these kids were to each other, like he was with his squad back in Academy. "Okay, I'm heading back to the bridge and keep the captain from losing any more hair. Make yourselves cozy…well, try to ignore all the chaos going on outside for now. I'll call you once we get the engines working again." He said to them, he smiled and left, the door closing by itself after he left the small room.

"Any ideas how to pass the time?" Mako asked them as he looked out from a nearby window.

"I'm still worried, we can't just sit here." Asami said.

"I know…Tenzin always said to meditate through hard situations like these." Korra said as she sat in an Air-Nomad fashion and relaxed her mind and body.

"Well…they have books." Bolin said as he grabbed one from a nearby shelf.

"Bolin, we can't read their books." Mako said.

"Oh." Bolin said as he placed the book back inside the shelf.


	10. Briefing

**Republic City**

* * *

"Move." An ODST said as his team and he moved through a battered city hall. He moved his fingers signaling towards the building's entrance. The other ODST nodded, he placed a C5 charge and then took cover.

The giant wooden door then came down, allowing the Special Forces ODSTs to enter; they quickly swiped the area for any hostiles. "Clear." One of them said, they lowered their M7/Caseless SMGs and looked for any survivors.

"Hey Gunny, look." An ODST said as he pointed to a dead Elite's body. "No bullet wounds or anything."

"Hmm…" The gunnery sergeant mumbled. "Keep searching for survivors, we want those government officials alive."

"Understood." The ODST obeyed as he ran towards the nearest door. The gunnery sergeant kept looking around the council chamber.

"Reminds me of old American city halls back home." He said to himself, he then took a piece of paper over the table. "Looks like Chinese." He then heard a creak behind the council table; the gunnery sergeant then readied his SMG and slowly walked towards it.

He got close and then kicked the table, making whoever who was hiding below it jump out. "Whoa there, don't move, identify yourself."

"Don't shoot; I'm Councilman Tarrlok, representative of the Northern Water Tribe." The councilman replied.

"A government official…good. I am Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck of the UNSC Marine Corps, my team and I are here to get you to safety." Buck said as he offered Tarrlok a hand up.

"Thank you." Tarrlok said as he accepted the help and stood up. "Any word from the other council members?"

"Not at the moment, we are still looking." Buck responded as the other ODSTs came back.

"Nothing but dead bodies, sir." The ODST with the sniper rifle informed.

"Okay, let's escort Councilman Tarrlok here to the LZ and meet with the local military forces there." Buck ordered.

They walked out of the city hall building and headed towards the LZ. "If I may ask, I have never seen that kind of armor before. Are you and your teammates benders?" Tarrlok asked them.

"Benders? Please." The ODST with the rocket launcher responded.

"Settle down Mickey, no we are not that, we let our guns do the talking." Buck answered as he once more focused on the road ahead. Tarrlok's expression changed to one of mistrust as he followed the troopers to their destination.

* * *

**UNSC Infinity**

"She's still meditating?" Bolin asked as they all saw how Korra was deep into meditation after thirty minutes.

"Leave her alone; at least she's a little relaxed." Asami said.

"What must she be seeing in there? I mean in the Spirit World." Mako wondered. Was Korra truly speaking with Aang or was this whole belief of theirs false?

* * *

"Aang!?" Korra yelled as she strolled by the grassy plains. "Anyone?!"

She walked until something stopped her. A gigantic metallic pillar appeared in front of her, it was as futuristic as the ancient construct in the planet's core. She touched the pillar and felt a strange energy coming off it.

"_And so you enter, human._" A silky female voice was heard coming from the plains.

Korra felt a presence behind her; she quickly turned and saw Avatar Aang standing behind her. "Hello Korra, it looks like you have connected to your spiritual self."

"Yeah…about that, how? I'm not too good with this spiritual business." Korra replied as she looked at her past self.

"Being inside our world has helped you connect with us, Korra. You have come to me with questions right?" Aang asked her.

"Is that…the legends of the Star-Lords and the Ancients…things that we have believed to be facts are now…false. I guess I just wanted to see you, to know that you were with all the time." Korra said as she crossed her arms and remembered what the Master Chief had told her.

"Korra, I'm always with you, me and your other past lives. The story of Star-Lords is not as false as you think them to be." Aang responded as he placed his hand over her shoulder. "You are the Avatar, the most powerful and wisest being on the world. Korra, even on these times of peril you will find a way."

Aang smiled at her, making her feel more secured. "One more thing…uh, who's the Didact?" She asked, receiving a stern look from Aang.

"The Didact…he is the Ancient God of War, Korra. You will have to stop him before he ends mankind." Aang answered her question.

* * *

Korra then opened her eyes, she had returned to the Infinity, with the others looking at books or taking a nap. "Oh boy…"

**The Bridge, UNSC Infinity**

"You called?" Korra asked as she entered the bridge. It had been a couple of hours after they had arrived and she had been called by Lasky to report to the bridge ASAP.

"Yeah Korra, we've repelled the satellite and the Covenant Storm forces away from the Infinity and that the Master Chief is coming down from up top." Lasky answered as he placed his coffee mug on the holo-table. Then Commander Palmer entered the bridge, fully armored minus her helmet.

"What's the kid doing here?" The SPARTAN-IV asked.

"Hold on there, who are you calling a kid?" Korra responded as she stood in front of the taller, stronger super-soldier. Palmer was at least two feet taller than Korra , but she didn't care if she was facing a so called Star-Lord, no one would call her 'kid'.

"You better watch your tongue, squirt, or you'll miss it." Palmer threatened, gaining a grin from Korra.

"I am the Avatar, so you are the one who better watch it." Korra responded, the two female brawlers looked at each other while a frustrated Lasky pinched the tip of his nose.

"Could you two please stop this, you barely know each other so calm down." Lasky said trying to avoid a catastrophe in the deck.

Palmer smiled and walked away. "You got fire, I respect that." She said as she stood beside Lasky as he looked at the holo-table.

"Uh…thanks?" Korra said feeling a little confused about what just happened. The doors opened again, this time Captain Andrew Del Rio and the Master Chief walked through it. The Master Chief's armor had been scratched in some areas but he looked as if nothing had happened to him.

"What I want to know people is where the hell did those things come from?" Del Rio asked as the Chief inserted Cortana into the holo-table, making her avatar appear.

"Well, it's more than possible that they are native or whatever counts as native for a Forerunner AI, to this planet, Requiem." Cortana said as the hologram of a Forerunner Promethean appeared.

"We've never seen this type of offensive reaction from any other installations." Del Rio said as he looked at the Knight.

"Other installations?" Chief asked. Korra was listening to their conversation, not wanting to speak just yet.

"Mr. Lasky." Del Rio said.

"Infinity's mission was to locate the remaining Halo rings." Lasky said as he replaced the hologram of the Knight with that of a Halo ring. "And establish permanent bases to study them for decommission. We got location running over Installations 5 and 3, but lately they've been running into some setbacks."

"A science team got zapped excavating a Forerunner artifact…" Del Rio added as he made Forerunner symbols appear on the holo-table. "…this sensor data is all that was left."

"Interesting…these symbols are a derivation of the Forerunner Glyph system." Cortana said as she examined the symbols.

"And our geeks managed to pull some coordinates…" Del Rio said as turned attention to Korra. "I'll give you three guesses where it led."

Korra wasn't amused by the Captain's little dry humor.

"Sir, Gypsy Company is prepare and ready to roll on your orders." Palmer informed the Captain as she gave him a data-pad. "Also, we have re-established contact with the surface, ODST team leaders report that the situation is improving as they recover more survivors."

"Good, thank you Palmer." Del Rion said as he began to look at the data-pad.

"Mr. Lasky, you take point, I want boots on the ground in sixty." Del Rio ordered his first officer as he handed the data-pad to him.

"Captain…" Master Chief said, feeling a little off about Del Rio's order.

"This is a first contact scenario, Master Chief. Priority is to free the Infinity from Requiem's gravity well and file a threat assessment to FLEETCOM." Del Rio responded, detailing his next move.

"You mean we're leaving?" Cortana asked.

"Sir, we can't leave these people here, they are defenseless against the Covenant and the Didact. We can't leave them to their own luck and we made the Didact retreat. He's vulnerable." The Master Chief said, not wanting to leave another planet to die.

"He isn't the only one. You know, out of all the people I thought that you would appreciate the benefit of living to fight another day." Del Rio responded as he walked away, leaving the bridge.

"Jeez…" Korra said as she walked towards the Chief and Cortana. "So, how you been?"

"About what happened in the jungle, it wasn't our intention to insult your culture." Cortana apologized.

"Don't worry about it; all we have to focus on now is how to stop the Didact." Korra said as she then looked at the Chief. "I would've never guessed that a man was inside that shell."

"Most people wouldn't." The Master Chief responded. "You better armor up, you and your friends are coming with me."

"What?" Korra asked.

"You heard the man." Cortana replied as she giggled at Korra's confusion. The Master Chief took Cortana's data chip out and put it inside his helmet.

"Yeah, I'll tell the others to ready up." Korra said as she ran towards the room the others were in.

"Great kid, lots of responsibility from what Lasky told me." Palmer said as she stood beside the Chief. The Master Chief looked at her and nodded, he then walked out of the bridge and towards the armory.

* * *

"Hey guys! We better prepare because we are going with the Chief in another mission!" Korra excitingly informed the others.

"But we are not even trained to use any of these weapons." Bolin said as he dropped the book he was reading.

"Does it matter? It's just aiming and shooting, or we can just use our bending." Korra responded.

"I'll rather stick to my firebending." Mako replied.

"Me too…well, earthbending." Bolin added.

"I'll take one." Asami said, getting a surprise look from the brothers. "What? I'm pretty good with them."

"Nice! Let's go to get armored up! I haven't wore an armor in years!" Korra yelled as she led Team Avatar to the armory.


	11. The Lord of Admirals

_**100,000 Years Ago…**_

"_Tonight we've beaten our enemy, the greatest adversary of the Forerunners…the Empire of Man._" The Didact said as he walked down accompanied by several of his Promethean guards.

He walked through the battered gate leading to the outside battlefield; the Didact was using his standard Promethean combat skin and a bright red cape showing his rank. As he came on the outside, several soldiers lined up on his presence…

"_Lord of Admirals, it is an honor to finally meet you._" The Didact said as he faced his human equivalent, Forthencho. He was tall, robust, white markings adorned his tanned skin, his hair was thick and long and his armor showed his rank…and experience.

"Didact, you have accepted our unconditional surrender." Forthencho said as the human soldiers behind him tried not to shoot at the Promethean Knights protecting the Didact. "I expected an emissary."

"_For an event such as this, I was needed to be present. For more than millennia our species has been at war, at first we did not know why…but we can see that you ran from the Parasite._" The Didact said.

"So you do understand the reasons of our retreat?" Forthencho said, hoping that the terms would be less severe.

"_Indeed, but that reason alone cannot justify a millennia of war and death, Lord of Admirals. Normally the penalty for such act would be complete annihilation of the aggressive race for it went against the Mantle. But you showed bravery, even for a human, you showed respect and courage, Lord of Admirals._" The Didact explained. "_For that I won't be sending your people to the maw of oblivion, but taking your technology away from you. You will be made to start over again, to think over the use of your tools…the Librarian has made me reconsider my former opinion of you._"

"And the Parasite?" Forthencho asked.

"_We are Forerunners, guardians of all that exist. If the Parasite ever returns, we will be ready._" The Didact assured him as he extended his hand. "_Maybe someday we will meet again._"

"As Lord of Admirals, leader of the military forces of the empire of man and Avatar of humanity, I surrender to you…Didact. We were once a great race, united in power and concerted in our goals…" The Lord Admirals said as he shook hands with the Forerunner. "…I will see you in the Spirit World."

The both mighty leaders looked at each other, once sworn enemies were now considering a possible friendship in the afterlife…

* * *

_**100,000 Years Later…Armory, UNSC Infinity**_

"Look at this armor, its awesome!" Bolin said as he looked at the Marine BDU he wore. "And its painted with my favorite color, green!"

"Could you please calm down, it's just metal over your chest." Mako said as he looked at his armor, he didn't like it. Then he saw an armor set in a nearby storage locker. "I'll take this one."

"Mako, we don't know if that is someone's armor set." Asami said trying to be gentle with the items in the armory.

"Ah, what's the worst that could happen?" Mako replied as he took the helmet from the set.

"That's an ODST Body Dress Uniform, given only to the top tier within the Marine Corp. The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers." Cortana informed through the Master Chief's speakers as the SPARTAN checked his Assault Rifle.

"Will it matter if I take it?" Mako asked.

"Eh, just take it." Cortana responded.

"Awesome."

Korra was already armored up; she wore the standard Marine BDU with her arms exposed, showing her Water Tribe armband. "Asami I think that you should use one of those rifle things over here." She said as she took a DMR from the crate in front of her.

"I think I will stick with the magnum." Asami replied as she placed her handgun inside its holster.

"Everyone ready?" The Master Chief asked as he stood up. They all nodded. "Follow me to the Pelican."

As they sat inside their assigned Pelican, Korra was beginning to get headaches.

"Korra you okay?" Mako asked.

"Just a headache, I'll be fine." Korra replied, she looked at her hands. Her vision was blurred…she closed her eyes to calm down.

* * *

Several ships exited slipspace, their location was a Forerunner colony world. Inside these ships, the elite of the Human Navy prepared to warn the planet of the immediate threat of the Parasite.

"Lord of Admirals, we are position over the Forerunner planet." One of the bridge officers informed the young war lord. He had been recently completed his training as both leader of the armada and as Avatar, master of the elements.

"Show me." Forthencho said as a hologram of the world appeared in front of him.

"Population numbering above 2 Billion, Forerunner ships on alert and inbound." The officer informed.

"Is it possible that we have arrived ahead of it?" Forthencho asked his naval assistant.

"Flood infestation detected, my Lord."

"Dammit! "

"My Lord…the infestation is in a remote locale." The analyst said. "Perhaps if we warn the Forerunners…"

"If we warn them we would be giving the Flood time to spread." Forthencho responded feeling immense pain and guilt for what he was about to do. "You know we have no choice."

He knew what would be the consequences of his actions but the risk for the infection to spread was too great. The galaxy needed balance, and as Avatar it was his duty to keep it balanced any way he could.

"Cleanse the planet."

And with it, the power of a thousand suns was unleashed on the planet below. Eradicating any and all lives that were on it…

* * *

Korra then opened her eyes; they were still in the pelican. A minute had passed but it felt like hours. What had she just seen? It appeared like it had been a past Avatar…but everything looked so far beyond her understanding, beyond what anything she has seen, even more than the UNSC itself.

Maybe everything will be answered once they confront the Didact…


End file.
